Humpty Dumpty Sat on a Wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.


All the King's horses and all the King's men...


Couldn't put Humpty together again.


My two older daughters took a look at these photos moments ago and have several issues with them/me. "Why isn't his head cracked on top? He fell on his head, Mom! Why is he still smiling? Why did his hat stay on?"

Okay, okay. Now go to school, girls.

I finished up this little guy over the weekend. He was inspired by a picture I had seen several months ago on flickr of what I originally thought was a wooden Humpty Dumpty. I sketched the face quickly in my book and decided to make a little cloth Humpty at some point.

It wasn't until recently that I realized the wooden Humpty was actually part of a common vintage nursery lamp (many are listed on etsy.com). Coincidentally, I also just saw the lamp in Alicia Paulson's Stitched in Time book while I was flipping through it on Sunday night.


My little Humpty doll was really easy to draft and make. His body is cloth stuffed with wool and the rest of him is made from wool felt. I put pipe cleaners inside his legs (at the last minute) so I can bend his knees/legs.

His hat is a copy of a little hat on a pig that I bought a few months back from OhMaFelt, minus the pom-pom at the end. (Check out that etsy store. Cute stuff!).


Despite their critique of the pictures above, the girls like him and call him my "shelf elf". The reference is apparently from some book at their school library. I haven't read it. I hope shelf elves are good.

He fits in up there, though.

Five Things I'm Excited About

Image from Etsy Shop A Little Sweetness

#1. I received this fabric a few days ago in the mail from Tasha at A Little Sweetness. (Thank you, Tasha!) Isn't her fabric lovely? I won this half-yard in a giveaway and I have been dreaming up what to make with it ever since. I thought at first that I'd incorporate it into some doll-quilts for the girls, but I also think it would work well as *something* around my sewing space. I just haven't decided what that something should be. The fabric is adorable in person. Check out her etsy shop - so many cute things!

#2. The girls and I had a successful, creative weekend. Crammed in between potlucks, soccer games, birthday parties, and baseball watching, my oldest daughter finished Project #7 in the Mary Frances Sewing Book. It is a Dressing Sack made of some fabric I purchased several months ago from Bessie Mary. She used the sewing machine for all sewing. I only had to use the seam-ripper once :).

Last night I finished off the nightclothes wardrobe for her with some little bunny slippers I made out of some extra-thick wool felt.


(A close-up, in case you have any doubt that a 7 year-old made this :) ).


Next up in the Mary Frances wardrobe is a pinafore!

#3. I also spent some quality time with my middle daughter in the sewing/office/guest room. She drew a doll that she'd like me to make. I'm going to try and recreate it for her - either out of wool felt or embroidery or print it out on some fabric. I haven't decided yet.


She and I also worked on knitting. She perched on my lap and held the needles with me and we did the knit stitch over and over and over again, all the while she chanted, "In through the front door, around the back, out through the window and off jumps Jack." We're working on a basic garter stitch scarf.

#4. AND...I'm super excited because I made something based off one of my many sketches and it turned out PERFECT! I'll show it here at some point. But I was so happy things came together. The end product is really cute. At least to me :). It's sitting up on a shelf right now and makes me smile whenever I look at it.

#5. I'm also making progress on several other projects. I have another doll almost stuffed, one ready to sew, and today I'm preparing a smaller version of my doll as well as a few other variations.

Busy week ahead! Hope it's a good week for everyone.

Mary Frances Kimono and WIP

Project #6 from the Mary Frances Sewing Book is complete. My daughter picked out this Baby Nay floral print which I think was perfect for the project. Instead of using ribbon, we used bias tape.

She has used my sewing machine just a handful of times in the past (usually, just sitting on my lap), but this was her first time using it on her own since starting our lessons.


And after all that hand-sewing that she has done over the past several months, she thinks the sewing machine is the GREATEST INVENTION EVER. She's eager to finish up the dressing sack now (Project #7) and plow through the remaining patterns.


In the meantime, I have this doll above that I'm still stuffing. I'm timing myself...and so far, this doll has taken 2 hours to stuff. Of course, I was watching some fluff on TV, but still. Perhaps I'm just a big slowpoke.

And this morning, I'm redrafting the doll pattern a bit. There are a few areas that I need to improve. I'm positive there are easier ways to do this (that I'm unaware of), but for me, I use string, pins, freezer paper, etc. It works! But someday, I'm sure I'll learn how much time I wasted doing it this way and how much more precise and efficient I could have been from the beginning :).